The Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) is meant to evaluate the impact of fatigue on a person’s life. (It doesn’t really measure "severity" but it is quite useful.) The FSS was developed by Lauren B. Krupps and colleagues in the late 1980s as a tool to assess fatigue in patientswith multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus erythematosus. The scale is
sometimes referred to as the Krupp’s Fatigue Severity Scale in the
medical literature. An application of a Rasch model commonly used in
psychometrics, the FSS is used in quality of life assessment for many
therapies, policies, etc. for chronic diseases and sometimes in sleep
research and clinical sleep medicine. The scale is also of use in
evaluating patients with major depression
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20953713)
The FSS questionnaire is comprised of nine statements inquiring about the examinee’s sleep habits over the preceding week. Ratings are on a 7-point Likert scale, where higher scores indicate how strongly the patient agrees with the nine statements.
It's been a hard day's night. I should be sleeping like a log. - The Beatles
A score of 36 and above (out of a maximum of 63) indicates the presence of significant fatigue but typical scores are much lower. The researchers behind a Norwegian study of a general population (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15823973) concluded a score of 45 would be better for indicating significant fatigue. It has been suggested that the FSS is most effective as a measure of disability-related fatigue, that is, fatigue arising from a chronic, debilitating illness. The FSS has become a major tool in studying fatigue in multiple sclerosis—over half of all studies on the topic have used the scale since its inception.
Studies to validate the FSS have shown the scale is internally
consistent (http://www.journalsleep.org/ViewAbstract.aspx?pid=27309) and can detect changes in fatigue over time. The research community
and some of the clinical community have accepted the FSS as a simple
and reliable measure of fatigue. It is not used as much as the MSLT
or Epworth scale in the diagnosis of sleep disorders and in trials of
therapies, but in that the FSS scores correlate with external
observations of fatigue, it has its place.
